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fall festival

birthday boy... a little late

to you....

best wedding pic ever

just my opinion, but aren't these two so gorgeous & happy?

a sweet friend from Jesus film, Danika, got married after the new year to Greg, a great guy...

warms my heart :).

to see more pics, go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danikagoes/sets/72157603725172869/

lake hart christmas party

mike did an amazing job as part of the team to set up our ministry's annual Christmas party... here we are celebrating.

thanksgiving

very thankful for friends...

more fall festival pics...

mike was on the team that put together the fall festival for crusade's headquarters last week.... he was busy organizing activities & food, hauling pumpkins, loading haybails, and building fences & signs (which i painted - great new mom therapy! :) for weeks... and he did a GREAT job!!

here are some more pics from the day... doesn't everyone look happy???
http://picasaweb.google.com/lakehartcommunitylife/FallFestival200702?authkey=MjonBvB46Z4


by the way, people who came to the festival brought food to put in "boxes of love", to be given out at thanksgiving by our inner city ministry in orlando:
http://hlic.org/comp0611_Impact_of_a_Box_of_Love.htm

the shower

some lovely friends (pictured left) threw me a lovely shower before hudson's arrival...








lovely food...















lovely gifts...






lovely Mommee (french grandmother title) came into town.

pics from the road

mike & my Dad getting ready to pull up a tree stump at my parents' in Fort Lauderdale
Mike at his first crawfish boil at my Grandmother's in Louisiana
me "showing" a bit more somewhere near Memphis

After a scenic railway tour just south of Branson

Celebrating Mike's Grandma's 90th with family in Missouri.

yummy dinner

During her visit our sis-in-love, Mindy, very slyly got us a gift certificate for dinner at one of most amazing places in Chiang Mai, the Chedi. Before last week, we'd only heard about eating dinner there! (Though they do have a very reasonable High Tea which I have had the delight to experience!)
Here we are, drinking in the atmosphere & about to eat an incredible meal. I had the 2nd best steak of my life (the best was one Mike cooked over a campfire at Moss Park when we went camping with Matt & Deb) & Mike had a really nice duck curry.... thanks Mark & Mindy!!



In their lovely open air lobby...
Looking preggo, huh?

adventures.... elsewhere

So, you may have heard by now that we are heading back to the States this summer! Though we originally were going back in November, we decided that transitioning back before baby B came would be all around better timing... we appreciate your prayers as we (& HR) make decisions on what we will do next!

All that's left to do now (after we sell, give away, & pack up our "Thai" life) is to find a new name for the blog... any suggestions?

The winner gets their picture posted.

earthquake

12.12.06

05:02:30 PM UTC

location Thailand ( 18.91N, 98.93E )
magnitude 4.7

depth 5 miles

first earthquake for both of us... happened maybe 20 miles north of us in a town called "Mae Rim".... shook the house a bit, but nothing too exciting (not that we were not alarmed)! just something about the earth beneath you moving... i'd prefer hurricanes.

my 30th

for those of you who couldn't be with us...

we went to dinner with our friends, david & christy... then came back to our place for christy's french chocolate cake! the perfect cake, i'm convinced... 1 tablespoon of flour and unmentionable amounts of chocolate & butter...




i'm experimenting with the video feature on blogger... you have to press the little play button (the carrot thingy above ">")... let me know how it works for you!

the 4th

we had a great time celebrating our country's birthday last week...

there is a US consulate in chiang mai, so we joined many other americans, as well as thai guests, in an evening of "american style hotdogs", sodas we'd been missing from the states (like sunkist & dr. pepper), make your own patriotic necklaces, and a "rousing sing-along" followed by fireworks to end things right.... all very fun, but we have no evidence of this fun since cameras & cell phones were "discouraged" at the consulate....

afterwards, we invited friends & neighbors back to our place for dessert, games, & patriotic movies...

it's amazing how patriotic you get when you leave the country... caryn decided to decorate the party cups and wrote a line from all 8 stanzas of "my country 'tis of Thee" on each one. yes... there are 8 stanzas! go here if you don't believe it: http://www.montney.com/flag/hymns.htm

a family from texas came... they brought a really cool cake, & we didn't try to explain to them that texas is only a part of the US, and not the entire country...


hope yours was great, too... feel free to leave a comment & tell us what YOU did!

long live the king

did you know Thailand has the longest reigning living monarch? the country just pulled out all the stops to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his reign...
he's a huge part of life here -- a picture of him has a prominent place in every business and home... at the beginning of movies, the audience stands to pay homage to him... & every once in a while in the supermarket, a special song plays and everyone just stops to think good thoughts of him... it's even punishable by law to say anything bad about him... this doesn't seem to be a problem though, since from everything we've heard, he's a really great guy...
here's a link if you are interested in learning more about His Majesty King Bhumibol:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/60yrsthrone/

very thai 3... songkran

here it is...
a national waterfight in action...
and we were right in the middle of it...

photo taken from the (dry) cab of our pickup by my aunt rosanna
pictured: caryn's cousin alyssa in foreground with goggles...caryn in the hat... our friend catherine squinting from a good dousing

chaos in the streets

fun chaos

my uncle Chris, encouraging the chaos

chaos in the backs of trucks

in on the chaos with friends

for background on songkran... click here & read the article in orange